In an interview with IGN, James Brolin — who discussed the role of Batman with Zack Snyder in Batman vs. Superman but declined because “to me it’s not about being cool and all that stuff” — spoke about his new role as the Emperor villain of the Marvel universe, Thanos, and why he did choose that role. He’s excited about it, and spoke to why he wanted to work with the Marvel people instead of, uh, those other guys.

“First and foremost, I have a really good friend who I’ve known for years who’s the co-president of Marvel, Louis D’Esposito. I knew Louis as a first AD, and he’s the one who initially called me, and then [producer] Jeremy Latcham. Then I talked to Kevin Feige, ultimately. But there’s something about them that’s so insular and so geeky and so real. I loved it — because I’ve turned down a lot of those types of movies. Not Marvel, but I’ve turned down a lot of those types of movies. When they started telling me the story about them getting together in Palm Springs, nine of them flipping burgers and talking about what Thanos was going to do and going, ‘What do you think?’ like, ‘Captain America’s going to show up here!’ Then, ‘Oh my God, what if the Hulk came in at that point?’ and all that — I love that sh**. I love it, because those guys are absolutely saturated with that world, and they love story. Another thing that I really loved is, they said that they didn’t use directors that did music videos and all that in the past. They would always look for people who had done stories. If you look at James Gunn’s oeuvre, he’s done even web series, but they’re all stories.”

Guys that did music videos? He didn’t name any names, but because it’s Friday, and because we passive-aggressive swipes from celebrities are fun, let’s just assume that we knew who Brolin was talking about: Zack Snyder? Or maybe even Marc Webb, who has also directed music videos. But mostly Zack Snyder. Because as Brolin said, he’s not interested in “being cool and all that stuff.” He’s interested in story.